Real Mail...You Want Some?

Do you remember life before the internet?
Before speedy emails and funny forwards...a life before chat-rooms, MSN, Skype and video chats?
Before Myspace, www. some website . com, Google and Yahoo?
A life before FACEBOOK?

I do and I miss it some times!  I now hate talking on the phone but I do love writing letters!
The problem is that I don't always have time to write nice, long letters!!
So what is the alternative? Post cards!
They are small, limited space to write in and you can find all kinds of different designs!  They're affordable, available pretty much anywhere in the world and light-weight to send.

And if you want to send a post card to someone at random - there is a website that can help you do so!

Postcrossing allows you to send up to 5 post cards at a time (with free registration) to a completely random stranger in the world!
Once your card is registered (you have to write your code on the back of the post card) then you are able to send more cards!  The number of cards does increase over time.

So far I have sent cards to Germany, Poland, Taiwan and the USA!
And I just received my first one yesterday from Poland!!

Enjoy and have fun Postcrossing! :)

Representing Finland....

So awhile ago, one of my best guy friends who lives in South Korea told me about a huge Youtube project for the holidays.
All I had to do was record a video of myself stating my user name, my location and send out a holiday greeting in 10 seconds or less and email it to someone by December 10th (I think).
So - I did it while the kids were napping...complete with dishes in the background....real attractive I know.

AND I spoke Finnish.  Pardon the Canadian accent and probably slight mis-pronunciation...

My super big Youtube debut in Finnish!

This is really neat as there are people from all over the world - and hopefully more people join up next year (especially from Finland and other EU countries)!!

Oh and I'm at 6:48....right before the Yoda guy...yeah I'm serious.
My friend represented South Korea with his students (there may have been others in S. Korea but he represented Gangneung anyway) and someone else I know represented Singapore!
Check it out!!

On that note however - Hyv�� Joulua, Happy Holidays and have a wonderful New Year!!
All the Best in 2012!!

International Food

I cannot believe I haven't posted about this before (at least I don't think I have...) but let's talk about "International Food".
Food that is not normally sold in Finland - would be American brands and British brands.

The big thing I missed since moving to Finland was Kraft Peanut Butter.  I don't think anywhere in Finland sells that brand (the jars are generally bigger) but that's okay...I eventually got used to the "Finnish" version of peanut butter, although it's not crunchy and it's more oily than the Kraft brand I'm used to.
Although, bonus points to Finland for selling Nutella!

Anyhow, a friend of mine, introduced me to this store, Behnford's, located in Helsinki.  They have their site in English (which I've linked for you) and they also ship based on weight and size of the package.

A friend of mine had gone to Helsinki and picked up a jar of Skippy's Peanut Butter - the jar was relatively small...I made it last as long as I could (got it in February I believe...) and the last bits were gone 2 days ago.
A very sad day indeed.

So, yesterday I got the chance to go with a friend (who thankfully has a car) to the big grocery store, City Market.

I wandered around and got the meat for the week and some other "heavier" stuff (bigger boxes of juice, extra milk cartons, pop - a real treat!, a big bag of potatoes) that can be a pain to carry home while walking....and then I remembered I was out of PB and Nutella!

Once I was in that aisle for spreads and jams - I looked across and saw a sliver of Heaven.

I bought 3 bags...the husband doesn't know.  I can finally make LOTS of treats and goodies with these!

Nutella is sold at all grocery stores....it's a hazelnut cocoa spread...yum.

The first time I've seen crunchy PB in grocery stores (City Market)

I've been here for almost 2 years and this is the first time I've seen semi-sweet chocolate chips! (Other than in Behnford's shop).

The Finnish version of smooth peanut butter...

So there ya have it...my special trip to the City Market ended with me coming home with special treats for me to bake with!

Marshmallows are sweet and sticky and great for Rice Krispy Squares, S'Mores, and other great little cookies...

Chocolate Chips are wonderful for baking with...like chocolate chip cookies....or chocolate chip muffins...or pancakes...or melting them for dipping small things to coat them in chocolate (although I've lately been using Fazer Dark chocolate baking squares) like macaroons (a coconut kind of cookie - sometimes known as a "hay stack")...

(My friend has never heard or seen them before and thought they looked like hamster droppings...I was mortified!)

I use PB for toast, sandwiches, dipping apples, a spoon of it in milk shakes...baked in cookies...for dog biscuits...

I use Nutella for toast primarily...sometimes in baking and occasionally in a milk shake or smoothie if I want to have something "chocolatey" but not a whole bar if you know what I mean!

These items were pricey (and not a brand name I recognize - but I don't care!) - however, if you factor in the cost of shipping from a friend or the cost of shipping from Behnford's....plus the potential of squished marshmallows....it works out to be cheaper than Behnford's and definitely cheaper than shipping from the US or Canada!